BIT AMOUNT OR USED TECHNIQUE - WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT ?

[♔Chello]

BIT AMOUNT OR USED TECHNIQUE - WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT ?

I have a lot of music in all formats and resolutions.

I also have a very good sound system, which is individually adapted part by part, and each single speaker unit has been modified to fit the rest.

And all of this is of course adapted to the acoustics of the room, which in turn is modified with simple means to retain a certain acoustics, but without standing waves.

I have played a lot of my music for over 40 years with many different sound systems in different formats and resolutions; sound systems with amplifiers of all kinds, speakers of almost all kinds, and media such as everything from cassette to HiFi video, tape recorder, vinyl, CD/SACD and DAC; digital formats of all types and resolutions.

So I know very well how different my music can sound, what is bad or good, and why.

Although the CD format was launched in 1983, I couldn't stand its sound quality, and got my first CD player in 1994.
CD was still clearly better than Mp3, but SACD was many levels better than CD.
But not always.

A good example is Dire Straits' albums, which I have had in all formats.

The strange thing is that although the details are clearer in SACD format, the recordings are victims of digital techniques; they are by no means of the best quality when it comes to recording techniques.

Digital techniques use a lot of shortcuts, removing all natural acoustics and adding them artificially at the end.
Everything is rigged, including the number of microphones and their placement.

It is an indisputable fact that my best music was recorded BEFORE the digital age, WITHOUT all the rigging that this entails.


So here I am today, with some of the best digital equipment available, just to play high-resolution music that is lousy recorded and edited.

Most of my best music is music that was recorded ANALOGUE, and later digitized with only 16 bit resolution, as the recording technique used is that gives the actual fidelity, and not the resolution.

Digital recordings are only getting worse and worse as new effects minimize the basic work.